E.ON Kraftwerke

E.ON Kraftwerke is a subsidiary of the German power company E.ON. E.ON Kraftwerke operates 30 power stations in Europe which are fired by coal, gas, oil and biomass energy sources. On its website it states that it is "evolving into specialists as far as the Europe-wide construction of conventional power stations is concerned."

Proposed New Coal-Fired power Stations
E.ON Kraftwerke is proposing the construction of a number of new coal-fired power stations. These are:
 * Antwerp Power Station (Belgium)
 * Datteln Power Station
 * Stade Power Station Expansion
 * Staudinger Power Station Expansion
 * Wilhelmshaven Power Station (E.ON Kraftwerke)
 * Braila Power Station Expansion (Romania)

Permit for Staudinger plant
On December 29, 2010, E.ON AG received approval from a governing council of the state of Hesse to build a sixth coal-fired power generation block at the Staudinger site with a capacity of 1.1 gigawatts. The new EUR1.2 billion plant would replace three old generation units built in the 1960s and 1970s. In a written statement, however, the company said it won't make a final decision to build the facility until it has weighed up the legal issues surrounding likely lawsuits that opponents of the project have previously announced. In a separate statement, the Darmstadt-based governing council said the first approval for the Staudinger plant allows E.ON to build facilities such as the power plant's boiler and engine houses or its cooling tower. Approval for the actual operation of the power plant hasn't yet been issued, the governing council said. It added, however, that the first partial approval includes "fundamental regulations" that E.ON has to abide to when eventually operating the plant.

E.ON has also faced legal challenges at a similar power plant project in western Germany, the Datteln Power Station.

E.ON had previously said it sticks to its plan to build the new Staudinger power plant despite partner Stadtwerke Hannover's decision earlier this year to exit the project. Stadtwerke Hannover, the local utility of the northern German city of Hanover, in November 2010 said it will sell its last remaining 12.6% in the Staudinger project to E.ON due to the German government's new energy policies that affect the profitability of coal-fired power plants - the federal government in September 2010 presented an energy policy to 2050, which includes extending the legal operating lives of the country's 17 nuclear power plants.

Contact details
Website: http://www.eon-kraftwerke.com/pages/ekw_en/index.htm

Related SourceWatch Articles

 * Europe and coal
 * Global use and production of coal

External Articles

 * E.ON Kraftwerke, "Upgrading of Staudinger Site", E.ON Kraftwerke website, accessed July 2008.